Our Affectionate Uncle Barry — Review: 'To Obama, With Love, Joy, Anger, And Hope'

Review: 'To Obama, With Love, Joy, Anger, And Hope' by Jeanne Marie Laskas

Dear President Obama,

Congratulations on the new book! It's so great to see you back in print, comforting the afflicted in these dark times. And my, what a pleasure cruise this must be for you: To Obama, With Love, Joy, Anger, And Hope, byNew York Times bestselling author Jeanne Marie Laskas—you didn't even have to lift your famous pen and phone to make it happen.

I had no idea you were such a profuse epistolarian. Answering 10 letters a night during your eight years in office—that's no small feat. It's fascinating reading them in a compilation and seeing how you took pains to correct those who disagreed with your vision, while offering encouragement to those who praised you to high heaven.

One of your detractors might call your dedication to letter writing a mixture of incompetence and neglect with regards to the more important areas of statecraft. But I can't hold it against you. The Iran Deal and the Affordable Care Act be damned: You were this nation's affectionate uncle.

And so cool, too. A loyal husband to Michelle, the woman who worked tirelessly to keep Faygo out of our kids' schools. A world traveler, never finding any reason too slight to jet out to some exotic vacation. Always a great friend to the press—or, "the blob," as your adviser, that chronic sock-forgetter Ben Rhodes, affectionately called us newspapermen. Ah, the memories.

Remember when your good friend Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote that novella-length eulogy for your presidency? How he described that 2016 party where you danced to "Hotline Bling" and cracked jokes about BET to a crowd filled with such luminaries as Janelle Monáe, De La Soul, and Usher? Coates was bedazzled, and so were we all. What a shame that all those pro-life, pro-gun voters frustrated with your eco-friendly regulations, bans, and caps decided to take revenge on you so soon after.

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